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DAKAR (AFP) - Senegal's army said Wednesday that five soldiers who went missing after a rebel attack last week in the troubled southern Casamance region were being held by separatist rebels.
An army statement said the five were "in the hands of" the Movement of Democratic Forces. "They are alive and their families have been informed."
The soldiers were reported missing after MFDC rebels attacked a military position on December 13 in the Casamance, Senegal's tropical south which is home to West Africa's longest and most persistent conflict.
A week later 13 people were killed in fighting between troops and rebels, a month after 10 civilians were killed in a suspected MFDC attack near the regional capital Ziguinchor.
The MFDC has been fighting for independence since 1982 in the region separated from the rest of Senegal by Gambia.
The conflict, which has seen periods of quiet and surges of violence, hasn't reached the levels of bloodshed of other wars in the region but has nonetheless claimed thousands of lives over the past three decades.
Several peace accords have failed, the MFDC is reportedly riven with divisions and rebels are often implicated in large-scale hijackings and the terrorising of villagers.
Source: http://www.modernghana.com/news/369268/1/five-senegal-troops-held-by-casamance-rebels.html
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TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's official news agency on Tuesday quoted a top official as saying Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off oil exports, if the West imposes sanctions on Iran's oil shipments.
According to the IRNA report Tuesday Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi said Iran does not want hostilities but charged that the West continues its plots against Iran.
The West is considering limiting Iran's oil trade over its disputed nuclear program. Some 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenue comes from oil exports.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called the threat "bluster." He said it was "another attempt by them to distract attention from the real issue, which is their continued noncompliance with international nuclear obligations."
Rahimi has no major role in Iran's foreign or military policy.
Iran is conducting a 10-day naval maneuver in the area the of the Strait of Hormuz, where about 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes. Closing the strait would have immense world economic impact.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/27/2563188/iran-warns-it-might-close-hormuz.html
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Source: http://www.madisontheateronline.com/viewevent.php?id=579
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Public release date: 27-Dec-2011
Share ] Contact: Carsten Rahbek
crahbek@bio.ku
01-145-353-21030
University of Copenhagen
As the Danish EU presidency begins, University of Copenhagen will host two workshops preceding the formation of UN's Panel for Biodiversity IPBES (Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). The workshops are arranged together with EPBRS (European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy) and the Danish Ministry of Environment. Professors Carsten Rahbek and Neil Burgess from Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate will contribute with several talks and professional discussions.
The first workshop "Informal IPBES workshop on the thematic content of the first IPBES work programme" takes place January 16th-18th. It aims to clarify EU's political viewpoint on biodiversity, and the outcome is reported directly to the European Commission. Each country is represented by a scientific and a political delegate, as well as invited researchers and independent experts. A total of 85 participants are expected to take part of the first workshop.
The following workshop "EPBES meeting on peer review procedures and procedures for election of authors, editors and reviewers" is held January 19th-20th. During these days the procedure for peer-review of IPBES reports are to be defined. The universities are requested to contribute with significant input in terms of the problems facing IPCC (panel on climate change) due to the use of non-peer-reviewed information. Around 60 participants are expected.
###
For more information on the representation of University of Copenhagen at the workshop, please contact Professor Carsten Rahbek crahbek@bio.ku; phone: +45 35 32 10 30.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 27-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Carsten Rahbek
crahbek@bio.ku
01-145-353-21030
University of Copenhagen
As the Danish EU presidency begins, University of Copenhagen will host two workshops preceding the formation of UN's Panel for Biodiversity IPBES (Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). The workshops are arranged together with EPBRS (European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy) and the Danish Ministry of Environment. Professors Carsten Rahbek and Neil Burgess from Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate will contribute with several talks and professional discussions.
The first workshop "Informal IPBES workshop on the thematic content of the first IPBES work programme" takes place January 16th-18th. It aims to clarify EU's political viewpoint on biodiversity, and the outcome is reported directly to the European Commission. Each country is represented by a scientific and a political delegate, as well as invited researchers and independent experts. A total of 85 participants are expected to take part of the first workshop.
The following workshop "EPBES meeting on peer review procedures and procedures for election of authors, editors and reviewers" is held January 19th-20th. During these days the procedure for peer-review of IPBES reports are to be defined. The universities are requested to contribute with significant input in terms of the problems facing IPCC (panel on climate change) due to the use of non-peer-reviewed information. Around 60 participants are expected.
###
For more information on the representation of University of Copenhagen at the workshop, please contact Professor Carsten Rahbek crahbek@bio.ku; phone: +45 35 32 10 30.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uoc-pbw122711.php
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Television manufacturers are outsourcing LCD screens production as competition and weak demand squeeze profits Photograph Thomas Collins/Getty
Sony has sold its nearly 50% stake in joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940m (?602m), as the Japanese company struggles to cut its losses at its TV business.
The venture for liquid crystal display (LCD) had been subject to rumours that Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays.
"In terms of direction it is a positive [for Sony]," said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities in Tokyo, about the deal. "But if they are making a loss on the sale, one could ask why they didn't make this decision sooner."
"Their biggest problem is that they are not making a profit even though they don't have many plants," he said.
In November, Sony, the world's third largest flat panel TV maker, warned of a fourth straight year of net losses for the financial year to next March, with its TV unit alone set to lose $2.2 bn on tumbling demand and a surging yen.
The company said on Monday it would review its earnings forecast to reflect ?66bn in impairment losses from the transaction.
While the sale is seen as a move in the right direction for Sony, it will not be good for Samsung, analysts said.
"Sony may shift to Taiwanese LCD makers should they offer cheaper prices," Song Myung-sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities, said in Seoul. Shares in Sony ended 1.6% higher, compared with a 1% gain in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average, while Samsung Electronics shares fell 0.2%.
Sony's panel venture with Samsung, S-LCD, was established to secure stable supplies for Sony's flat-screen TVs at a time of shortages.
Once a symbol of Japan's high-tech might, Sony has sold off TV factories in Spain, Slovakia and Mexico in the past few years and outsources more than half of its production while retaining four TV plants of its own ? in Japan, Brazil, China and Malaysia.
Some analysts say the $100 bn LCD TV market peaked last year and forecast it will shrink 3 to 4 % annually, as consumers in advanced countries have traded in their bulky cathode-ray tube TV sets for flat screens, while the LCD market has been in a glut since last summer.
Global TV manufacturers are restructuring their businesses and outsourcing production as cut-throat competition and weak demand squeeze margins.
Analysts have criticised Sony for failing to aggressively take on the competition in the TV market from South Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics, the largest and second-largest players, respectively.
In November, Sony cut its TV unit sales forecast for the second time this year and dropped a plan to boost its TV sales to 40m sets in the year ending March 2013, conceding defeat to Samsung, the world's largest flat-panel TV maker.In April, Sony said it would not raise its stake in a separate LCD venture with Sharp for at least a year, and in August said it would merge its loss-making small-panel business with the government-backed Japan Display.
In October, it signalled a push into the smartphone market by announcing it would take control of its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson for $1.5bn.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/26/sony-smasung-tv-joint-venture
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TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran threatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions were imposed on its crude exports over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with economies dependent on Gulf oil.
Western tensions with Iran have increased since a November 8 report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog saying Tehran appears to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be pursuing research to that end. Iran strongly denies this and says it is developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Iran has defiantly expanded nuclear activity despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions meted out since 2006 over its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment and open up to U.N. nuclear inspectors and investigators.
Many diplomats and analysts believe only sanctions targeting Iran's lifeblood oil sector might be painful enough to make it change course, but Russia and China - big trade partners of Tehran - have blocked such a move at the United Nations.
Iran's warning on Tuesday came three weeks after EU foreign ministers decided to tighten sanctions over the U.N. watchdog report and laid out plans for a possible embargo of oil from the world's No. 5 crude exporter.
"If they (the West) impose sanctions on Iran's oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz," the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as saying.
The U.S. State Department said it saw "an element of bluster" in the threat but underscored that the United States would support the free flow of oil.
"It's another attempt to distract attention away from the real issue, which is their continued non-compliance with their international nuclear obligations," spokesman Mark Toner said.
Rahimi's remarks coincided with a 10-day Iranian naval exercise in the Strait and nearby waters, a show of military force that began on Saturday.
"Our enemies will give up on their plots against Iran only if we give them a firm and strong lesson," Rahimi said.
JANUARY MEETING
Countries in the 27-member European Union take 450,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, about 18 percent of the Islamic Republic's exports, much of which go to China and India. EU officials declined to comment on Tuesday.
About a third of all sea-borne oil was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and U.S. warships patrol the area to ensure safe passage.
Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq - together with nearly all the liquefied natural gas from lead exporter Qatar - must slip through the Strait of Hormuz, a 4-mile wide shipping channel between Oman and Iran.
Iran has also hinted it could hit Israel and U.S. interests in the Gulf in response to any military strike on its nuclear installations - a last resort option hinted at by Washington and the Jewish state.
However, some analysts say Iran would think hard about sealing off the Strait since it could suffer just as much economically as Western crude importers, and could kindle war with militarily superior big powers.
"To me, if Iran did that it would be a suicidal act by the regime. Even its friends would be its enemies," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFG Best Research in Chicago.
SAUDI REPLACEMENT?
Industry sources said on Tuesday No. 1 oil exporter Saudi Arabia and other Gulf OPEC states were ready to replace Iranian oil if further sanctions halt Iranian crude exports to Europe.
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi had said that Saudi Arabia had promised not to replace Iranian crude if sanctions were imposed.
"No promise was made to Iran, it's very unlikely that Saudi Arabia would not fill a demand gap if sanctions are placed," an industry source familiar with the matter said.
Gulf delegates from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said an Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz would harm Tehran as well as the major regional producers that also use the world's most vital oil export channel.
Oil prices spiked on Tuesday, fuelled by fears of supply disruptions and Iranian naval exercises in a crucial oil shipping route, with gains capped by simmering euro zone debt concerns.
Brent crude oil futures jumped more than a dollar to over $109 a barrel after the Iranian threat, but a Gulf OPEC delegate said the effect could be temporary. "For now, any move in the oil price is short-term, as I don't see Iran actually going ahead with the threat," the delegate told Reuters.
The industry source said that in the case of EU sanctions, Iran would most likely export more of its crude to Asia, while Gulf states would divert their exports to Europe to fill the gap until the market is balanced again.
A prominent analyst said that if Iran did manage to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the ensuing spike in oil prices could wreck the global economy, so the United States was likely to intervene to foil such a blockade in the first place.
"First, the U.S. will probably not allow Iran to close the Strait. That's a major economic thoroughfare and not just for oil. You shut that Strait and we are talking a major hit on many Middle East economies," said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks in New York.
"Second, there is no way that the Saudis (alone) have enough oil or quality of oil to replace Iranian crude. Figure Saudi spare capacity is 2 to 4 million at best. Of that spare, about 1-2 million is real oil that is comparable out of Iran. Lose Iran, lose 3.5 million barrels per day of imports. No way."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed hitting Iran with an oil embargo and won support from Britain, but resistance to the idea persists within and outside the European Union.
An import ban might raise global oil prices during hard economic times and debt-strapped Greece has been relying on attractively financed Iranian oil.
Iran's seaborne trade is already suffering from existing trade sanctions, with shipping companies scaling down or pulling out as the Islamic Republic faces more hurdles in transporting its oil.
(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, Robert Gibbons and Janet McGurty in New York, Amena Bakr in Dubai, Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Jon Boyle and Alison Williams)
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LOS ANGELES ? Hollywood has picked up a little Christmas bonus.
Studios generally underestimated the size of their movie audiences over the weekend, and they're now revising the holiday revenues upward.
Leading the way is Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," which pulled in $29.5 million for the weekend. That Monday figure is $3 million more than distributor Paramount estimated a day earlier.
For the four-day period Friday to Monday, Paramount estimates "Ghost Protocol" will have taken in $46.2 million to raise its domestic total to $78.6 million. That's on top of $140 million the film has taken in overseas, giving it a worldwide haul of $218.6 million.
Studios Monday also reported stronger results than they did a day earlier for Robert Downey Jr.'s "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," which was No. 2 at $20.3 million for the three-day weekend and $31.8 million for the four-day period; Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin" at No. 5 with $9.7 million over three days and $16.1 million for four days; and Matt Damon's "We Bought a Zoo" at No. 6 with $9.5 million over three days and $15.6 million for four days.
In a tight race for the No. 4 spot were David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and the family sequel "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked."
"Dragon Tattoo" did $12.8 million over three days and $19.4 million for four days. "Chipwrecked" took in $12.7 million over three days and $20 million for four days.
A few films debuted on Christmas Day, among them Spielberg's World War I epic "War Horse," which took in $7.5 million Sunday. Through Monday, its estimated two-day total is $15 million.
Also debuting was Emile Hirsch's action thriller "The Darkest Hour," which earned $3 million Sunday and had a two-day total of $5.5 million through Monday.
Opening solidly in just six theaters was Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock's Sept. 11 drama "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which took in $71,000 Sunday and $136,000 through Monday. The film expands to nationwide release in January.
Despite the upward revision on some movies' revenues, the Christmas weekend continued a box-office slide that has persisted since Thanksgiving. Overall revenues from Friday to Sunday totaled $128 million, down 10 percent from Christmas weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:
1. "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol," Paramount, $46,210,000, 3,448 locations, $13,402 average, $78,645,000, two weeks.
2. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," Warner Bros., $31,810,000, 3,448 locations, $9,226 average, $90,564,000, two weeks.
3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," Fox, $20,000,000, 3,734 locations, $5,356 average, $56,940,187, two weeks.
4. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Sony, $19,400,000, 2,914 locations, $6,658 average, $27,716,000, one week.
5. "The Adventures of Tintin," Paramount, $16,100,000, 3,087 locations, $5,215 average, $24,107,000, one week.
6. "We Bought a Zoo," Fox, $15,600,000, 3,117 locations, $5,005 average, $15,600,000, one week.
7. "War Horse" (opened Sunday), Disney, $15,025,000, 2,376 locations, $6,324 average, $15,025,000, one week.
8. "The Darkest Hour" (opened Sunday), Summit, $5,500,000, 2,324 locations, $2,367 average, $5,500,000, one week.
9. "New Year's Eve," Warner Bros., $4,950,000, 2,585 locations, $1,915 average, $34,287,000, three weeks.
10. "The Descendants," Fox Searchlight, $3,425,000, 813 locations, $4,213 average, $33,716,552, six weeks.
11. "The Muppets," Disney, $3,355,000, 1,752 locations, $1,915 average, $76,911,000, five weeks.
12. "Hugo," Paramount, $3,300,000, 1,256 locations, $2,627 average, $44,927,000, five weeks.
13. "Arthur Christmas," Sony, $3,100,000, 1,804 locations, $1,718 average, $44,062,000, five weeks.
14. "The Sitter," Fox, $3,000,000, 1,786 locations, $1,680 average, $23,488,202, three weeks.
15. "Young Adult," Paramount, $2,775,000, 987 locations, $2,812 average, $8,184,000, three weeks.
16. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1," Summit, $2,150,000, 1,603 locations, $1,341 average, $270,951,901, six weeks.
17. "The Artist," Weinstein Co., $1,402,000, 167 locations, $8,395 average, $2,900,430, five weeks.
18. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," Focus, $1,210,160, 55 locations, $22,003 average, $2,311,670, three weeks.
19. "My Week with Marilyn," Weinstein Co., $888,000, 602 locations, $1,475 average, $7,307,196, five weeks.
20. "Puss in Boots," Paramount, $685,000, 389 locations, $1,761 average, $143,935,000, nine weeks.
___
Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," $43 million.
2. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," $22.3 million.
3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," $20.1 million.
4. "Puss in Boots," $17 million.
5. "Arthur Christmas," $9.7 million.
6. "The Darkest Hour," $3.5 million.
7 (tie). "Hugo," $2 million.
7 (tie). "In Time," $2 million.
7 (tie). "Rubbeldiekatz," $2 million.
10. "Real Steel," $1.9 million.
___
Online:
http://www.hollywood.com
http://www.rentrak.com
___
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fritz-strobl-md/holiday-stress_b_1165207.html
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They?re fired! Donald Trump has officially left the Republican Party, changing his voter registration to ?unaffiliated.? An aide said that Trump switched ?in order to preserve his right to run for president as an independent if he?s not satisfied with who the Republicans nominate.? The aide added that Trump was ?disgusted? with the GOP?s handling of the payroll-tax-cut extension.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedailybeast/cheat-sheet/~3/aKRZ_o7GslI/trump-leaves-gop.html
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DOVER, Del. ? A federal judge in Delaware has canceled a February trial in New York's antitrust lawsuit against chip-maker Intel Corp.
The judge says he is halting the case while attorneys discuss a schedule for submitting papers on outstanding issues, including Intel's motion for summary judgment and New York's motion to dismiss the case.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general's office said in papers filed Thursday that they want to have the federal case in Delaware dismissed so they can pursue their claims in New York state court.
That decision followed the Delaware judge's dismissal of claims filed on behalf of individual computer purchasers and his ruling that Delaware's three-year time restriction for claims, not New York's longer statute of limitations, applies in the case.
Intel is based in Santa Clara, Calif.
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IP rights in China: Still inscrutable - Mozilla Firefox ht.ly/86wuu 
BLSLibrary Brooklyn Law School
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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Get ready. The last trading week of the year will be a test for stocks to prove whether they have the strength to carry a rally into next year.
The broad S&P 500 index broke through its 200-day moving average on Friday after turning positive for the year as a four-day rally lifted stocks following a spell of better-than-expected economic data. At Friday's close, the S&P 500 was up 0.6 percent for the year.
But despite the recent economic data that suggest the U.S. economy is on the right track to recovery, Europe's sovereign debt crisis is troubling investors and weighing on the market.
Many market participants are reluctant to believe in a "Santa Claus rally" this year, which refers to stocks' seasonal tendency to gain in the final five trading days of the year and first two trading days of the new year.
Warnings from major credit rating agencies on a potential downgrade of several European nations have kept investors on edge. After Standard & Poor's surprised financial markets back in August with a downgrade of the United States' triple-A credit rating on a Friday evening, investors worry a similar move could come at any time - even between Christmas and New Year's.
But the absence of European sovereign bond auctions for the next two weeks could lend support to stocks.
"The fact that there won't be a (European) bond auction until the second week of January, that takes away some spotlight from Europe, at least for a little while," TD Ameritrade chief derivatives strategist J.J. Kinahan said.
"Unless we get earth-shattering news, the S&P could go up to (the) 1,300 levels," he said.
The S&P 500 closed on Friday at 1,265.33.
The correlation between U.S. stocks and European sovereign bond yields has been high, especially the link with Spanish, Italian and German bonds. A poor bond auction in any one of these countries could trigger an instant selloff in the U.S. stock market.
SANTA CLAUS VS BEAR CLAWS
What happens next week is important as it sets a tone for the coming year.
"If Santa should fail to call, bears may come to Broad & Wall," so goes the Wall Street adage, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.
Ari Wald, a technical strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, said the key level on the S&P 500 to watch is 1,260, which is a resistance from the index's downward sloping 200-day moving average and the downtrend connecting its October and December peaks.
"A breakout above this supply would argue for continued seasonal strength through the first quarter of 2012," he said.
He also noted that 1,200 is support from the index's downward sloping 100-day moving average and the uptrend connecting its October & November lows.
"A breach of this demand could stir additional technical selling to 1,130-1,150 intermediate-term support," Wald said.
With many investors absent until the start of 2012, trading volume is expected to be light, creating more volatility.
Next week's data includes the S&P 500 Case-Shiller House Price Index and consumer confidence data on Tuesday.
The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index and pending home sales data are due on Thursday. After a strong gain in November, the Chicago index is seen giving back a modest amount in December.
(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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Continue reading Galaxy Tab 8.9 gets a taste of homemade Ice Cream Sandwich (video)
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Oil on Wednesday (Dec. 21) traded near its highest in a week in New York, on signs that the U.S. economy will be spared a recession and amid growing pressure on Iran to curtail its nuclear program, Bloomberg News reported.
Futures were little changed after rising as much as 1.3 percent. The American Petroleum Institute showed crude inventories dropped to the lowest in almost two years. Analysts in a Bloomberg News survey predicted the U.S. Energy Department will say later Tuesday that supplies fell 2.13 million barrels. The February contract surged 3.4 percent on Tuesday, on U.S. housing data that beat estimates, unexpected growth in German business confidence and concern that shipments from Iran may be curbed.
"Oil has been strengthening as we get more positive U.S. economic data, such as housing starts, along with a recovery in the euro and the possibility of Iranian reprisals," said Robert Montefusco, senior broker at Sucden Financial Ltd. in London.
Crude for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was at $97.28 a barrel at 1:32 p.m. London time, up 4 cents, after rising as much as $1.26 to $98.50, the highest since Dec. 14. On Tuesday, the contract climbed $3.19 to $97.24. Front-month futures have risen 6.5 percent this year after gaining 15 percent in 2010.
Brent oil for February settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange was down 23 cents at $106.50 a barrel after rising $1.03, or 1 percent, to $107.76 a barrel. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $9.27 to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate grade. The spread widened to a record $27.88 on Oct. 14.
President Barack Obama?s administration and European Union governments are seeking help from Arab and Asian allies to reduce Iran?s oil revenues. EU nations, the U.S. and Asia-Pacific allies discussed possible measures in Rome on Tuesday and agreed to increase pressure on Iran, the world?s No. 3 crude exporter in 2010, to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program, according to an Italian Foreign Ministry statement.
U.S. crude inventories fell to 330 million barrels last week, the lowest since the period ended Jan. 22 last year, the industry-funded API said Tuesday.
Gasoline stockpiles decreased 394,000 barrels to 213.9 million, based on the API data.
Copyright 2011, Bloomberg LP. All rights reserved.?
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SAN FRANCISCO ? A clerical error landed Kathleen Casey on the streets.
Out of work two years, her unemployment benefits exhausted, in danger of losing her apartment, Casey applied for a job in the pharmacy of a Boston drugstore. She was offered $11 an hour. All she had to do was pass a background check.
It turned up a 14-count criminal indictment. Kathleen Casey had been charged with larceny in a scam against an elderly man and woman that involved forged checks and fake credit cards.
There was one technicality: The company that ran the background check, First Advantage, had the wrong woman. The rap sheet belonged to Kathleen A. Casey, who lived in another town nearby and was 18 years younger.
Kathleen Ann Casey, would-be pharmacy technician, was clean.
"It knocked my legs out from under me," she says.
The business of background checks is booming. Employers spend at least $2 billion a year to look into the pasts of their prospective employees. They want to make sure they're not hiring a thief, or worse.
But it is a system weakened by the conversion to digital files and compromised by the welter of private companies that profit by amassing public records and selling them to employers. These flaws have devastating consequences.
It is a system in which the most sensitive information from people's pasts is bought and sold as a commodity.
A system in which computers scrape the public files of court systems around the country to retrieve personal data. But a system in which what they retrieve isn't checked for errors that would be obvious to human eyes.
A system that can damage reputations and, in a time of precious few job opportunities, rob honest workers of a chance at a new start. And a system that can leave the Kathleen Caseys of the world ? the innocent ones ? living in a car.
Those are the results of an investigation by The Associated Press that included a review of thousands of pages of court filings and interviews with dozens of court officials, data providers, lawyers, victims and regulators.
"It's an entirely new frontier," says Leonard Bennett, a Virginia lawyer who has represented hundreds of plaintiffs alleging they were the victims of inaccurate background checks. "They're making it up as they go along."
Two decades ago, if a county wanted to update someone's criminal record, a clerk had to put a piece of paper in a file. And if you wanted to read about someone's criminal past, you had to walk into a courthouse and thumb through it. Today, half the courts in the United States put criminal records on their public websites.
Digitization was supposed to make criminal records easier to access and easier to update. To protect privacy, laws were passed requiring courts to redact some information, such as birth dates and Social Security numbers, before they put records online. But digitization perpetuates errors.
"There's very little human judgment," says Sharon Dietrich, an attorney with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, a law firm focused on poorer clients. Dietrich represents victims of inaccurate background checks. "They don't seem to have much incentive to get it right."
Dietrich says her firm fields about twice as many complaints about inaccurate background checks as it did five years ago.
The mix-ups can start with a mistake entered into the logs of a law enforcement agency or a court file. The biggest culprits, though, are companies that compile databases using public information.
In some instances, their automated formulas misinterpret the information provided them. Other times, as Casey discovered, records wind up assigned to the wrong people with a common name.
Another common problem: When a government agency erases a criminal conviction after a designated period of good behavior, many of the commercial databases don't perform the updates required to purge offenses that have been wiped out from public record.
It hasn't helped that dozens of databases are now run by mom-and-pop businesses with limited resources to monitor the accuracy of the records.
The industry of providing background checks has been growing to meet the rising demand for the service. In the 1990s, about half of employers said they checked backgrounds. In the decade since Sept. 11, that figure has grown to more than 90 percent, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
To take advantage of the growing number of businesses willing to pay for background checks, hundreds of companies have dispatched computer programs to scour the Internet for free court data.
But those data do not always tell the full story.
Gina Marie Haynes had just moved from Philadelphia to Texas with her boyfriend in August 2010 and lined up a job managing apartments. A background check found fraud charges, and Haynes lost the offer.
A year earlier, she had bought a Saab, and the day she drove it off the lot, smoke started pouring from the hood. The dealer charged $291.48 for repairs. When Haynes refused to pay, the dealer filed fraud charges.
Haynes relented and paid after six months. Anyone looking at Haynes' physical file at the courthouse in Montgomery County, Pa., would have seen that the fraud charge had been removed. But it was still listed in the limited information on the court's website.
The website has since been updated, but Haynes, 40, has no idea how many companies downloaded the outdated data. She has spent hours calling background check companies to see whether she is in their databases. Getting the information removed and corrected from so many different databases can be a daunting mission. Even if it's right in one place, it can be wrong in another database unknown to an individual until a prospective employer requests information from it. By then, the damage is done.
"I want my life back," Haynes says.
Haynes has since found work, but she says that is only because her latest employer didn't run a background check.
Hard data on errors in background checks are not public. Most leading background check companies contacted by the AP would not disclose how many of their records need to be corrected each year.
A recent class-action settlement with one major database company, HireRight Solutions Inc., provides a glimpse at the magnitude of the problems.
The settlement, which received tentative approval from a federal judge in Virginia last month, requires HireRight to pay $28.4 million to settle allegations that it didn't properly notify people about background checks and didn't properly respond to complaints about inaccurate files. After covering attorney fees of up to $9.4 million, the fund will be dispersed among nearly 700,000 people for alleged violations that occurred from 2004 to 2010. Individual payments will range from $15 to $20,000.
In an effort to prevent bad information from being spread, some courts are trying to block the computer programs that background check companies deploy to scrape data off court websites. The programs not only can misrepresent the official court record but can also hog network resources, bringing websites to a halt.
Virginia, Arizona and New Mexico have installed security software to block automated programs from getting to their courts' sites. New Mexico's site was once slowed so much by automated data-mining programs that it took minutes for anyone else to complete a basic search. Since New Mexico blocked the data miners, it now takes seconds.
In the digital age, some states have seen an opportunity to cash in by selling their data to companies. Arizona charges $3,000 per year for a bundle of discs containing all its criminal files. The data includes personal identifiers that aren't on the website, including driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Other states, exasperated by mounting errors in the data, have stopped offering wholesale subscriptions to their records.
North Carolina, a pioneer in marketing electronic criminal records, made $4 million selling the data last year. But officials discovered that some background check companies were refusing to fix errors pointed out by the state or to update stale information.
State officials say some companies paid $5,105 for the database but refused to pay a mandatory $370 monthly fee for daily updates to the files ? or they would pay the fee but fail to run the update. The updates provided critical fixes, such as correcting misspelled names or deleting expunged cases.
North Carolina, which has been among the most aggressive in ferreting out errors in its customers' files, stopped selling its criminal records in bulk. It has moved to a system of selling records one at a time. By switching to a more methodical approach, North Carolina hopes to eliminate the sloppy record-keeping practices that has emerged as more companies have been allowed to vacuum up massive amounts of data in a single sweep.
Virginia ended its subscription program. To get full court files now, you have to go to the courthouse in person. You can get abstracts online, but they lack Social Security numbers and birth dates, and are basically useless for a serious search.
North Carolina told the AP that taxpayers have been "absorbing the expense and ill will generated by the members of the commercial data industry who continue to provide bad information while falsely attributing it to our courts' records."
North Carolina identified some companies misusing the records, but other culprits have gone undetected because the data was resold multiple times.
Some of the biggest data providers were accused of perpetuating errors. North Carolina revoke the licenses of CoreLogic SafeRent, Thomson West, CourtTrax and five others for repeatedly disseminating bad information or failing to download updates.
Thomson West says it was punished for two instances of failing to delete outdated criminal records in a timely manner. Such instances are "extremely rare" and led to improvements in Thomson West's computer systems, the company said.
CoreLogic says its accuracy standards meet the law, and it seemed to blame North Carolina, saying that the state's actions "directly contributed to the conditions which resulted in the alleged contract violations," but it would not elaborate. CourtTrax did not respond to requests for comment.
Other background check companies say the errors aren't always their fault.
LexisNexis, a major provider of background checks and criminal data, said in a statement that any errors in its records "stem from inaccuracies in original source material ? typically public records such as courthouse documents."
But other problems have arisen with the shift to digital criminal records. Even technical glitches can cause mistakes.
Companies that run background checks sometimes blame weather. Ann Lane says her investigations firm, Carolina Investigative Research, in North Carolina, has endured hurricanes and ice storms that knocked out power to her computers and took them out of sync with court computers.
While computers are offline, critical updates to files can be missed. That can cause one person's records to fall into another person's file, Lane says. She says glitches show up in her database at least once a year.
Lane says she double-checks the physical court filings, a step she says many other companies do not take. She calls her competitors' actions shortsighted.
"A lot of these database companies think it's `ka-ching ka-ching ka-ching,'" she says.
Data providers defend their accuracy. LexisNexis does more than 12 million background checks a year. It is one of the world's biggest data providers, with more than 22 billion public records on its own computers.
It says fewer than 1 percent of its background checks are disputed. That still amounts to 120,000 people ? more than the population of Topeka, Kan.
But there are problems with those assertions. People rarely know when they are victims of data errors. Employers are required by law to tell job applicants when they've been rejected because of negative information in a background check. But many do not.
Even the vaunted FBI criminal records database has problems. The FBI database has information on sentencings and other case results for only half its arrest records. Many people in the database have been cleared of charges. The Justice Department says the records are incomplete because states are inconsistent in reporting the conclusions of their cases. The FBI restricts access to its records, locking out the commercial database providers that regularly buy information from state and county government agencies.
Data providers are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission and required by federal law to have "reasonable procedures" to keep accurate records. Few cases are filed against them, though, mostly because building a case is difficult.
A series of breaches in the mid-2000s put the spotlight on data providers' accuracy and security. The fallout was supposed to put the industry on a path to reform, and many companies tightened security. But the latest problems show that some accuracy practices are broken.
The industry says it polices itself and believes the approach is working. Mike Cool, a vice president with Acxiom Corp., a data wholesaler, praised an accreditation system developed by an industry group, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. Fear of litigation keeps the number of errors in check, he says.
"The system works well if everyone stays compliant," Cool says.
But when the system breaks down, it does so spectacularly.
Dennis Teague was disappointed when he was rejected for a job at the Wisconsin state fair. He was horrified to learn why: A background check showed a 13-page rap sheet loaded with gun and drug crimes and lengthy prison lockups. But it wasn't his record. A cousin had apparently given Teague's name as his own during an arrest.
What galled Teague was that the police knew the cousin's true identity. It was even written on the background check. Yet below Teague's name, there was an unmistakable message, in bold letters: "Convicted Felon."
Teague sued Wisconsin's Department of Justice, which furnished the data and prepared the report. He blamed a faulty algorithm that the state uses to match people to crimes in its electronic database of criminal records. The state says it was appropriate to include the cousin's record, because that kind of information is useful to employers the same way it is useful to law enforcement.
Teague argued that the computers should have been programmed to keep the records separate.
"I feel powerless," he says. "I feel like I have the worst luck ever. It's basically like I'm being punished for living right."
One of Teague's lawyers, Jeff Myer of Legal Action of Wisconsin, an advocacy law firm for poorer clients, says the state is protecting the sale of its lucrative databases.
"It's a big moneymaker, and that's what it's all about," Myer says. "The convenience of online information is so seductive that the record-keepers have stopped thinking about its inaccuracy. As valuable as I find public information that's available over the Internet, I don't think people have a full appreciation of the dark side."
In court papers, Wisconsin defended its inclusion of Teague's name in its database because his cousin has used it as an alias.
"We've already refuted Mr. Teague's claims in our court documents," said Dana Brueck, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin's Department of Justice. "We're not going to quibble with him in the press."
A Wisconsin state judge plans to issue his decision in Teague's case by March 11.
The number of people pulling physical court files for background checks is shrinking as more courts put information online. With fewer people to control quality, accuracy suffers.
Some states are pushing ahead with electronic records programs anyway. Arizona says it hasn't had problems with companies failing to implement updates.
Others are more cautious. New Mexico had considered selling its data in bulk but decided against it because officials felt they didn't have an effective way to enforce updates.
Meanwhile, the victims of data inaccuracies try to build careers with flawed reputations.
Kathleen Casey scraped by on temporary work until she settled her lawsuit against First Advantage, the background check company. It corrected her record. But the bad data has come up in background checks conducted by other companies.
She has found work, but she says the experience has left her scarred.
"It's like Jurassic Park. They come at you from all angles, and God knows what's going to jump out of a tree at you or attack you from the front or from the side," she says. "This could rear its ugly head again ? and what am I going to do then?"
___
AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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Police officers walk through the office building that houses offices of Southern California Edison after a man armed with a rifle shot two people, then shot himself in Irwindale, Calif., Friay, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Police officers walk through the office building that houses offices of Southern California Edison after a man armed with a rifle shot two people, then shot himself in Irwindale, Calif., Friay, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
People who were evacuated from a Southern California Edison complex in Irwindale, Calif., wait outside to be interviewed after a gunman opened fire inside Friday afternoon, Dec. 16, 2011. Three people were killed and two more wounded. The suspected gunman was among the dead and is believed to have self-inflicted wounds, Baldwin Park police Capt. Michael Taylor said. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Police and firefighters stand outside a Southern California Edison complex in Irwindale, Calif., after a gunman opened fire inside Friday afternoon, Dec. 16, 2011. Three people were killed and two more wounded. The suspected gunman was among the dead and is believed to have self-inflicted wounds, Baldwin Park police Capt. Michael Taylor said. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Police officers walk through the office building that houses offices of Southern California Edison after a man armed with a rifle shot two people, then shot himself in Irwindale, Calif., Friay, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Police officers block the entrance of the office building that houses offices of Southern California Edison after a man armed with a rifle shot two people, then shot himself in Irwindale, Calif., Friay, Dec. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
IRWINDALE, Calif. (AP) ? A man who shot four people, killing two, at a utility office east of Los Angeles before turning the gun on himself was a 48-year-old company employee from Southern California, authorities said Saturday.
Investigators identified the shooter as Andre Turner of Norco in Riverside County and ruled that his death was a suicide, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz told the Associated Press.
The two other men killed were Henry Serrano, 56, of Walnut and Robert Lindsay, 53, of Chino, Dietz said.
Two other shooting victims, a man and a woman whose names were not released, were in critical condition at a hospital, the Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
All five people worked for Southern California Edison in the same area of the same building at an office park in Irwindale, a small industrial city east of Los Angeles, authorities said. Authorities have released no information on a possible motive.
A phone number listed in Turner's name rang unanswered Saturday morning.
Horrified employees barricaded themselves behind locked doors and hid under desks Friday afternoon as Turner walked through the office firing a semi-automatic handgun, authorities said.
"This is one of the most horrible days in our company's history," said Edison International Chairman and CEO Ted Craver.
Four of the victims were Edison employees and one was a contract worker, authorities said. Police could not confirm media reports that at least two of the targeted victims were believed to be company managers.
The office complex and nearby schools were locked down as the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's SWAT team responded to several 911 calls.
Turner and Lindsay were found dead at the scene, and Serrano died at a hospital, authorities said.
No gunfire was exchanged after officers arrived, and police believed Turner acted alone
"As far as we know there was one shooting suspect, period," Baldwin Park police Capt. Michael Taylor said.
In the hours after the shooting, police cars, ambulances and fire trucks surrounded the building, and dozens of workers emerged with their hands over their heads.
The complex is surrounded by a fence and patrolled by a security guard. Employees need a security card to get into the building, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. About 230 employees work in the building where the shooting took place, and about 1,100 employees work in the complex.
The utility's office is in a complex of buildings that also includes a business called California Lighting Sales.
Cindy Gutierrez, the controller for that company, said employees there didn't hear gunshots and didn't realize anything was amiss until building management announced over the intercom that everyone should stay indoors.
Two nearby schools were locked for about two hours after the shooting and no one on the campuses was hurt.
Irwindale is a city of about 1,400 residents in the San Gabriel Valley, 22 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is home to the Irwindale Speedway auto racetrack and large rock and gravel quarries.
Southern California Edison is one of its largest companies, employing 2,100 people.
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BEIJING (AP) ? Beijing authorities on Friday ordered Internet microblogs to require users to register with their real names, a tightening of rules aimed at controlling China's rapidly growing social networks.
An announcement posted online said all microblog companies registered in the capital had to enforce real name registration within three months.
The rules, jointly issued by the Beijing government, police and Internet management office, apparently apply to all 250 million users of the hugely popular Twitter-like service Weibo.com, regardless of location, because its operator, Chinese Web portal Sina Corp., is headquartered in Beijing.
Sina rival Tencent Holdings is based in the southern city of Shenzhen. It wasn't immediately clear whether the company's microblog service would have to comply with the same rules.
China had more than 485 million Internet users as of the end of June, the most of any country in the world.
Government officials warned in October that tighter new guidelines for social media sites were coming. Officials said then they were concerned about people using the Internet to spread lies and rumors. But the government is also clearly worried about the use of Weibo and other sites to mobilize potentially destabilizing protest movements.
The new rules explicitly forbid use of microblogging to "incite illegal assembly." Public protests are illegal in China and are a concern for the Communist leadership.
Microblogs helped mobilize 12,000 people in the northeastern city of Dalian to successfully demand the relocation of a petrochemical factory and served as an outlet for public anger after a crash on the showcase high-speed rail system in which at least 40 people died. They also have given a national platform to a handful of independent candidates who have run this year for local legislative councils.
Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, which is based in Beijing and specializes in China's telecommunications and IT sectors, said announcing the rules in Beijing first could be a way of testing their impact in a limited area before expanding them to cover the rest of the country.
He said the system would inevitably rein in China's microblogs. "Having a real name system will make people much more cautious about what they post," he said.
China blocked Twitter and Facebook after they were instrumental in anti-government protests in Iran two years ago, and instead encouraged homegrown alternatives in the apparent belief that domestic companies would be more responsive to government demands.
It remains to be seen whether China's new rules could drive some people away from domestic services. Tech-savvy Chinese are still able to access Twitter and Facebook by using special software that circumvents the government's firewall.
"Real name registration is sadly predictable, but very hard to implement, or if implemented is futile anyway as users will just shift to other platforms," said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing research firm.
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